This program, entitled the Minority Bioscience Researchers Training Initiative MBRTI, is a significantly revised version of a proposal submitted in 1997 from the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) College of Veterinary Medicine, with Gerald Buening also identified as the program manager. MBRTI was developed in response to reviewers' comments about the 1997 proposal. In contrast to the earlier proposal, this is much broader in scope--with several biomedical science departments housed in four different colleges--and reflects the interdisciplinary research climate that is a hallmark of MU. With its expanded focus, MBRTI will have a much larger cohort of prospective students from which to recruit participants not only from MU departments, but from institutions in the region and nationwide. MBRTI will complement several other efforts that are being implemented at MU that are designed to increase the number of talented students in the biomedical sciences, including minorities, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The MBRTI program will be carefully coordinated with several on-going programs. For the four-year program, MBRTI will recruit and support 20 graduate students, 20 PBS students, 4 postdoctoral candidates, and 12 faculty development candidates, who will participate in research training programs. The program manager will be assisted by 3 staff members-- Program Coordinator, Workshop Coordinator, Data Coordinator--and an Executive Advisory Committee composed of 10 MU faculty members. The Advisory Committee will review applications, select participants and match them with mentors, review the recurrent evaluation data and reports that will be prepared, and participate in the various activities planned for MBRTI.